


Summer Fading

by Aeos



Category: Shingeki no Kyojin | Attack on Titan
Genre: First Kiss, M/M, Non-Graphic Violence, Oneshot, POV Levi (Shingeki no Kyojin), ereri, major death, riren - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-05-31
Updated: 2017-05-31
Packaged: 2018-11-07 03:45:10
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,537
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11050641
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Aeos/pseuds/Aeos
Summary: Never had Levi thought he'd end up lying on the ground alone; stomach torn to pieces and bleeding. What a boring way to go for someone as looked-up to as him.





	Summer Fading

The putrid stench of coppery blood filled his lungs and Levi was immediately emptying the contents of his stomach onto the ground beside him. It was all blood, he noted with a disgusted shudder. From where? He couldn't say for sure; as his body was numb from head to toe and his head was swimming in exhaustion. He summoned up what little strength he had and scooted away pitifully from the mess he had made. Even in a state such as this, his old habits seemed to rear their ugly head.

With nowhere to go, Levi was forced to think. As a child, he had been so obsessed with his own blood. Watching it pour from his nose, down his chin from a recent fight. Sometimes, despite what his mother had drilled into him about pinching his nose to help clotting, he'd tilt his head back and let it flow down his throat, feeling it settle in his stomach until he grew sick from the taste and the smell. Now, the thought of that blood filling his stomach had him retching and spitting.

Levi brought a hand to his mouth, wiping the redness from his mouth and lips as the telltale whirs and snaps of firing Maneuver Gear sounded from above. His name was being shouted out in panicked voices, and he absently reached for the flare gun next to his shivering figure. He'd saved it, for when Erwin had decided to get his act together for a brief moment and search for his most valuable asset.

He took hold of the flare gun and placed his index finger on the trigger, ready to fire and signal for his rescue. He was beaten to it, however, by a certain lanky brunette who was blubbering like a lost child and running up to him. Where had Eren come from? Why was he on the ground when Levi was certain the area was crawling with Titans? Levi didn't have time to ponder on these questions before he was being roughly pulled into a hug, upsetting his stomach and making him grunt in pain. After that, came the comforting warmth of another body curling around him, supporting him.

Eren was a mess. Both physically and mentally. His hair was a wild nest of brown locks and leaves and he was looking at Levi like he were a ghost coming back from the grave. He was talking in a way that had Levi's head spinning uncomfortably and struggling to keep up; and the most he could manage was a weak, "Slow down."

Eren, being the obedient little pup he was, immediately shut his mouth, now running his hands over Levi's face, his neck, and then his stomach. Had Levi been more conscious, he would have smacked the brat for feeling him up so shamelessly. Perhaps it was warranted, though. Judging by the horrified look on his subordinates face. He swallowed, feeling blood trickle down his throat and settle in his stomach. Eren looked up, his eyes wide and filled with more emotion than Levi could even begin to catalog. "Your gear failed. I saw you fall - and I- I was the only one to see so I looked for you and- and.." Eren trailed off when he finally spoke, and Levi hadn't realized that he had asked what had happened. He tilted his head up, looking at the bright blueness of the sky seen between leaves of the canopy above to quell his steadily-growing anxiety. A question was on his tongue, and he spoke in a even voice, "What color do you suppose the sky is, Eren?"

He heard a choked sound from his subordinate and met Eren's fearful gaze. He looked like he was on the verge of a breakdown, and Levi couldn't seem to figure out why. His voice was clear and soft like rain, like it always had been, "It's blue. I'm... not certain of what shade. B-But I'm certain I've seen it somewhere before, Captain."

Levi stared at him, processing the words and placing his hands on his stomach. He felt a warm wetness there, but didn't look down. Looking down meant that he'd have to accept what has happened. How he'd fallen and landed on an outcropping of rock. How he'd broken his legs and - "Where?"

Eren wiped at his eyes with his perfect, unmarred fingers and he was settling next to Levi, holding him closely and stroking his hair like a mother would to console her upset child, "I'm not sure. I don't know."  
Levi tilted his head up, looking into Eren's eyes and feeling as though the pieces of his entire life had fit together perfectly, "Your eyes. They're the same shade."

They weren't. His eyes were far too green; gold at the pupils. But Levi was good at lying to himself, good at pushing the world aside and keeping up his facade. It was how he stayed rooted; or had in this case. A hand brushed up against his own, on his stomach, and Levi was forced to look down at what had happened. It wasn't a pretty sight. His stomach was a mess of red. It was pooling around him where he was now, and there was a similar, larger pool of blood where he had been sitting. Levi's eyes moved lower, to the mangled and awkward position his legs were in. The bones on his right leg jutted out in a way that had Levi averting his gaze. His stubbornness would, quite literally, be the death of him.

Eren's fingers tightening around his own brought him back, and he gazed up, meeting those same eyes that he'd thought about so often. During training outside then later in the stifling confines of his office. When he'd touch himself beneath the sheets of his cot and burn with shame under the chilled water of a shower afterwards. He'd been aware that the boy harbored similar feelings early on, and so had his squad. They'd teased him relentlessly over he supposed crush on their Captain, to the point where the lanky brunette had stopped caring supposedly. Perhaps he hadn't, as Eren's gentle, bloodied hand was now cupping his cheek and he was crying, wetting his tanned cheeks with his grief and muttering apologies and declarations. And Levi wondered briefly, how someone so beautiful could be allowed to cry over a wretch like him. The world must had truly been cruel to allow for such an atrocity to occur. Wet, trembling lips pressed against his face. An act which had Levi trembling for his own, more primal reasons. Those tanned fingers he had dreamed about on so many occasions were now guiding Levi's lazily bobbing head to a proper position.

Eren's lips were dry and chapped, from swinging through the air with his Gear. They tasted like wind and nothing else besides the last remaining flavors of Eren's breakfast at the canteen. Levi had always hated when romantic types claimed that kisses tastes like 'honey or sugar.' It was bullshit. Mouthes tasted like mouthes, and Levi was okay with that so long as the mouth he was kissing was Eren's.

Speaking of Eren; the boy was holding him impossibly close, moving his mouth against Levi's own while he whimpered and babbled. Levi couldn't find it in himself to care. He was tired; but he wasn't idiotic enough to pretend that he didn't know what was happening. He was dying. And judging by the way his subordinate was clinging to him and holding onto every breath Levi managed to suck in, he knew as well.

"You haven't fired my smoke signal yet," Levi observed, speaking out the words quietly when Eren moved away from their lip-lock.

He received a barly perceivable nod in return, and Eren, thinking that Levi hadn't seen, replied hastily after, "Your insides are... well... they're not in good shape."

That had Levi chuckling morbidly, and he brushed his hand back down to the gaping wound in his abdomen. It was still gushing out blood. No doubt his mesentery had been ripped the shreds on the rocky outcropping above. Even if he had survived the trauma of that, it certainly didn't account for the scrambled mess that was Levi's organs.

"Dying because of faulty gear. What a fitting way to go," Levi murmured, his head lolling to the side and onto Eren's broad shoulder. Oh, how he loved these shoulders. He'd wished he could have at least dug his nails into the back of them before his passing.

Eren was speaking again, but Levi couldn't hear above the low din in his ears His eyes fluttered shut and he reached blindly for Eren's hand in fearful desperation. It was surprising how hastily his hand was grabbed and held between clammy, bloodstained digits. He wanted to laugh, but Levi could only manage an amused sound from the back of his throat. Anxiety was brushed away, only to have its place taken away by a deep sense of calmness. His senses were washed and diluted into shadows of their former selves. Now, the weight of Eren's hands on his own and the smell of summer was what he felt.

Levi supposed that that was okay.

**Author's Note:**

> Send comments my way on what you think.
> 
> tumblr is aeostival


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